


your ghosts know why you still live

by stuffandsundry



Series: xen·o·lith [1]
Category: Tales of Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28112073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuffandsundry/pseuds/stuffandsundry
Summary: strange things are happening to kor, lately.
Series: xen·o·lith [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059491
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	your ghosts know why you still live

Kor's being haunted.

It’s the worst! This is scary! He hates ghosts!

But... it's true! Kor's absolutely positive that there's someone following him, and this mystery stranger has been around since he saw— since he left Seaville with Kohaku and Hisui. And that just doesn't make sense. Nobody from the village would do something like this, and they couldn't even if they wanted to. It's definitely not Incarose, either. So... its a ghost, right? He’d asked Beryl if she’d seen it, because it’s embarrassing to ask Inez, and Hisui would definitely just laugh at him, and Gall would pat him on the back like he’s a little kid— anyways, the point is Beryl didn’t see anything either, but she _did_ scream and kick him every time a sound in the forest spooked her for the next week, so maybe he should have phrased that better, huh. In the end, it's up to him to try and figure out who this ghost is. 

It could be Gramps, Kor thinks. Kor wishes with all his heart that it's Gramps that's haunting him, because if he says that he doesn’t miss Gramps, it would be a lie, and also ghosts are scary but Gramps wouldn't spook Kor.

But somehow.… the feeling the ghost gives off…

He feels something brush against the back of his neck like hair that he's sure isn't his, and he sees a flash of red in the corner of his eye, and all of a sudden he's so pissed, why is he acting like this? 

After all, he’s strong, he can defeat it. Why can't he just demand this strange being to just show it's wretched, cowering form— Where the heck did that thought even come from?

Kor scratches the back of his neck. Man, this is weird.

* * *

And that’s not the only strange thing that’s been happening, either… There's a dream he's been having, recently.

He's in this really shiny room, every surface made out of metal and rock put together in a way he's never seen before. He's not sure where he is. A church, maybe? (not really.) It's beautiful, but he's never in the mood to explore while he's dreaming, because he's not alone in the dream.

There's this woman in front of him. Always, always getting in the way. (he never liked her much.) And he knows that this time, he can’t just let things slide, there's something— something _really important_ that he has to do and she won’t let him. It's agonizing.

Kor doesn't remember what exactly he yells at her, but it probably doesn't matter. She won't move no matter what. Her hair flutters as she throws out her arms to block him, and his eyes can’t help but be drawn to the movement.

The green of her hair is only a few shades off from the green of the huge cluster of crystals behind her. But the glimpses Kor catches of his own self out of the corners of his eyes— black and white, and a red so painful it's almost pink.

And Kor thinks to himself: he's the one who doesn't belong here, not her.

Maybe that's why he always wakes up gasping for air. Still frustrated, and angry, and desperate to lash out at someone.

But never quite remembering just what he was going to say to her.

* * *

Okay, that’s not entirely true. Even if he doesn’t remember most of his dreams, he can connect the dots of what he does remember! Heh. Hisui, eat your heart out! He’s way smarter than you give him credit for! 

First things first: the girl in his dreams is the same girl who was living in Kohaku’s Spiria. The one that hates him, and he definitely doesn’t like her either, probably, except it’s really rude to make snap judgements like that. Maybe she’s nice! So, that’s definitely the reason why he’s frustrated in his dreams, right. Because if that first meeting had gone better… then things wouldn’t have… 

Well, Kor won’t know anything about that kind of what-if. Not yet, at least! He’s gotta find a way to talk to that green lady first, without the, y’know, swords. And explosions. And screaming. So— it’s really awkward to say, but maybe Kor _does_ have an ulterior motive for putting Kohaku’s Spiria back together. 

But he’s still mostly doing this because he’s owning up to his mistakes, so it’s okay if he doesn’t tell anyone about this, right? (yes.)

* * *

Various, uh, hauntings aside, though, Kor’s having a great time on this journey. Well, mostly! 

He loves being able to go out there and see the world outside of his hometown, and he loves the friends he's picked up along the way, but it’d be better if the start wasn’t so totally miserable. 

If he could go back and do it all over again, he’d… 

Well, first of all, he’d do better clearing out all the xerom from Kohaku’s spiria. He’d try not to scare the girl living in there too. And… he’d want to save Gramps. Not that he knows how he’d do that, but… 

Well, worst come to worst he’d probably just go for Incarose’s throat and hope that bastard of a witch dies. Hey, nobody said he’s good at planning! It’ll work out if he tries hard enough, probably!

(What Kor doesn’t think is this: the memory of Incarose hurting his grandfather makes violent emotion swell up in his heart. It closes its hands over his ears, so that all he hears is the mad pounding of his own heart; it covers his eyes so that all he sees is her damned, bloody, mocking smile. Maybe it’s not right to make snap judgements, but Kor’s pretty confident that Incarose doesn’t deserve to live. She’s awful. She killed Sydan, and she wants to kill Kohaku, too. Surely, he thinks to himself. It’s fine if he's a little petty about this. Gramps may have told him never to hurt a girl, but this is definitely an exception.)

.

.

.

Is it?

**Author's Note:**

> the concept of this fic series is: what if the spiria that creed tried to jump into was still not quite stable, and his meddling caused it to collapse and meld together with his own? 
> 
> ill be jumping around to whatever scenes i get inspiration for, which is why i created a series instead of a singular multichapter fic. this is my city now.


End file.
